Kylian Mbappé has broken his silence following the controversy generated after he, Vinicius and Konaté did not wear the support message for Ceuta during the moments before the Elche - Real Madrid match. "It was a decision by the clubs to wear the shirt. The players had to wear it. The first thing I want to say is that I have all the solidarity with Ceuta and with all the victims. Because before being a player, I am human. But I also wanted to have a gesture and a thought for all the immigrants who have lost their lives and who are also in difficult conditions," the Frenchman stated in an interview with AS.
The Frenchman insisted that it was "a difficult position because in the end people may think that I am against the people of Ceuta but no, absolutely not." "I have nothing against them and I support them 100% with my thoughts, but I did not want to prioritize suffering. But I also wanted to have a thought for all the people who are suffering, because in the end I am human," he pointed out.
Mbappé claimed to be "a guy who wants the best for the world we live in" and reiterated that "I intend to send a message of positivity and peace, and I hope this is resolved quickly."
The decision not to wear the Ceuta support shirt continues to generate controversy at a social and political level in Spain. The three footballers refused to display the tribute slogan: "We are all Caballas. Ceuta and the Knights of the Sea". A garment prepared by the Valencia Association of Entrepreneurs (AVE), led by former Real Madrid president Vicente Boluda, for the home games of the four clubs in the Valencian Community: Levante, Villarreal, Elche, and Valencia. But why did the players reject it when Real Madrid, their club, had accepted the proposal? Well, we have to go back 24 hours.
Ez Abde had to delete most of his social media posts and received thousands of insults from Moroccan citizens for wearing the Ceuta support shirt. But far from regretting it, Abde defended his position claiming it was "of a social nature in support of a population and its inhabitants." "At no time has the shirt referring to the people of Ceuta been used for a political purpose or to show contempt towards my people, the Moroccan people," he added in a statement on his social media, insisting that "this is not an apology to anyone."
Abde's post and all the controversy surrounding the shirt reached the Madrid dressing room. Brahim Díaz is Abde's teammate in the Moroccan national team and Achraf Hakimi, captain of the Moroccan team, is one of Mbappé's best friends. And all of them, like any young person today, are aware of what is happening on social media and especially in everything related to football. They were aware of the reactions generated in Morocco by Abde's image.
So when after the warm-up at the Martínez Valero Elche informed Madrid of the initiative, the latter accepted it and the staff of the white team handed the shirts to the players, several had doubts about what to do. And three of them, Mbappé, Vinicius, and Konaté, decided to fold the shirts at the level of the message so that it was not visible, thus avoiding criticism from Morocco. Only «we are all» could be read, without the reference to «Caballas», the nickname for the inhabitants of Ceuta. According to this newspaper's sources, the players considered that the shirt had a political connotation and refused to take a stance on the matter.
Once the controversy arose after the players' image, Madrid hinted that within the dressing room there are different "beliefs, sensitivities, opinions and views of reality," respecting their players' decision not to join the tribute. The club did not want to impose its view on the matter and internally recalled that in last weekend's Levante-Barcelona match, the Barcelona team did not join the action of the Levante team, which took to the Ciutat de Valencia stadium wearing shirts in support of Ceuta.
In the case of Madrid, this is the second official act of support for Ceuta after the flag mosaic displayed by a large part of the Santiago Bernabéu during the Champions League match against Inter Milan. An initiative that focused on the Fans Stand and ended with almost the entire stadium chanting "Ceuta is not for sale, Ceuta is defended."